Intervene Again: Scrapbooking Night
by kdzl
Summary: What are friends to do when their friend needs help? Sequel to "The Intervention", Mentions of JJ/Hotch.


**_An/This was too tempting to pass up. I'm a sucker for stories where the team tries to fix JJ's life. _****_The beauty of "The Intervention" is that there were absolutely no pairings. If you liked it for that reason and that reason alone, I would stop reading. There isn't a ton of shipping in this, but there is some. So be warned. But its mostly blink and you'll miss it._**

**_Irony or ironies, this story isn't even about the ship, its just a way to get JJ out of the house. This story is much more about every one else._**

**_I don't own CM, though it would be fun if I did. _**

**_Enjoy! _**

* * *

"Hey Jayje." Garcia called as JJ sat down at the table at the Willow Avenue cafe. She and Emily had been waiting for what felt like hours, but they tried to be understanding to their friend. JJ was after all, a single mother. It wasn't like they could hold every lost moment against her. They wouldn't be their normal, punctual selves either if they were trying to raise a rambunctious two-year-old by themselves.

"Sorry I'm late, my sitter canceled last minute so I had to drop Henry off at my brother's so that my sister-in-law could watch him." JJ said breathlessly. "I'm so sorry, I got here as fast as I could."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Emily waved off. "We actually already ordered, we got you the soup and salad because that's what you usually get."

"Ah, that's great. Thanks." JJ smiled, still panting.

"Not a problem." Garcia said, observing her friend's tired appearance. JJ had always been one for hygiene and timeliness, now, she was hard to recognize. Two years ago, everything about JJ had been controlled and crisp, now, chaos followed her every step. It was a large change to get used to, and Garcia and Emily were still wondering if the old JJ would reappear anytime soon.

The conversation stayed on its normal fluctuation, before they saw JJ wipe something off of her shirt and plop it into her purse.

"What was that?" Garcia asked, disgusted.

"Oh, it was just a little spit." JJ deflected in a detached manner.

"Then why are you keeping it?" Emily added in.

"One of Henry's teeth came in and its the spit up from that." She explained, as though it were obvious. "I thought I would keep it and put it in his scrapbook."

The scrapbook. Again. JJ was always promising to put things--mind you disgusting things--into her young son's scrapbook. The trouble was, she hadn't even started it. Although her apartment had been cleaned out months before by the team in an in the moment intervention, her piles of pictures and sickening items was slowly piling up. Soon, another intervention would need to take place, though Morgan and Reid swore that they would take no part in it. "When are you going to start this scrapbook?" Garcia asked innocently.

"When I have time." JJ stated ambiguously.

Emily and Garcia looked at each other in disbelief. JJwas the busiest person alive, she was never going to have time. They were going to have to do something, and they were going to have to do it fast. Otherwise they would have to clean out her apartment again once it was filled with disgusting keepsakes and mementos.

"JJ, what if we came over and helped?" Garcia inquired sweetly.

"That would be great, except I don't know when you would." She smiled, trying to let her friends off the hook from helping her disasterously chaotic life. "I tend to be running around these days."

"So when do you plan on scrapbooking?" Emily questioned in confusion.

"I'll find time." JJ shrugged, her comments meeting disbelief. When she looked back up at her friends, she saw their looks of doubt and insisted, "What? I will!"

"Like how you found time to clean up your house?" Garcia retorted.

"You two just beat me to it, I was going to get right on it." JJ countered defensively as their food came.

"Please, you were three infectious diseases away from me calling HAZ-MAT." Garcia maintained as she picked off the tomatoes from her sandwich. "What about Friday?"

"I can't." JJ admitted, blushing. She speared her salad, trying to ignore the gawking look she was getting.

"Why not?" Emily pried, ready for any juicy gossip for her to enjoy, as she grabbed Garcia's discarded tomatoes and added them to her hamburger.

"I have a _date._" JJ sounded the last word out, as if it sounded foreign to her. The entire phrase brought a smile to her face, though it felt ridiculous. Embarrassed, she looked down at her soup, as though suddenly immensely interested in the small chunks of potato and broccoli.

"With who?" Garcia asked as if Hanukkah came early. This was becoming way too good for her to not squeal in delight.

"Someone." JJ said vaguely, then tried to change the subject, "but really, it's not important. What about--"

"No, no, hold it right there sugar. You're not getting out of this until you let us know what chivalrous knight has whisked you off your feet enough for you to even _agree_ to go on a date with him." Garcia scolded.

"It's no one." JJ blushed, trying to deflect once more.

"Jayje, knock it off." Garcia said firmly, "Who is it?"

"Hotch." JJ confessed, a smile dancing at the corner of her lips.

"What?" Emily and Garcia cried in unison. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah." JJ nodded. "We're just going to dinner, he asked me yesterday."

"And you didn't tell me? I'm hurt." Garcia squealed.

"I'm telling you now." JJ pointed out, neglecting to acknowledge the fact that she only offered the information as a result of their teeth-pulling antics. "And its no big deal, I think he just wanted to be nice and--"

"He isn't just trying to be nice." Emily promised. The entire team had scene the way Hotch was looking at JJ lately, and this was the perfect opportunity. "He likes you."

"I don't want to go into this." JJ said, getting up from the table. "I have to go the restroom."

As the other two women saw their retreating friend, they turned to each other in glee. "Can you even believe it?" Garcia chuckled.

"I thought it was never going to happen." Emily smiled. "Its about time."

"Do you think it'll work out? I mean, I want it to work out with them, but do you think it will?" Garcia inquired nervously.

"Well, if the man still likes JJ after he's seen her housekeeping abilities, I don't think there's much more to scare him away." Emily scoffed. "But, if they go out on Friday--"

"That gives us the perfect opportunity--" Garcia nodded, finishing her friend's thought. "Oh boy, this is going to be good."

"Do we get the guys?" Emily asked, raking her brain for what she could use in her benefit.

"Of course." Garcia smiled. "They owe us."

"For what?" Emily questioned.

"For being nice to look at." Garcia responded easily. "I'll bug them about it later."

"This is going to rock!" Emily laughed.

* * *

"You three ready to go?" Garcia prompted to Reid, Rossi and Morgan as they were about to leave the BAU.

"Sure, where's Emily?" Rossi asked, noticing that the brunette was no where in sight.

"She's meeting us at the destination." Garcia said cryptically.

"So you're still not going to tell us what your roping us into?" Morgan scoffed. "Baby girl, you're scaring me."

"Relax Sugar." Garcia laughed. "You'll have fun. I promise."

"Why is that not as reassuring as it should be?" Reid chuckled nervously. He never knew what to expect when he was around Garcia and this was not an exception.

"Because you're paranoid." Garcia shrugged off. "Ye of little faith, relax. It will be fabulous." She turned to walk out of the doors, where Morgan immediately followed.

"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't after you." Rossi whispered conspiratorially at Reid.

"Why do I have a feeling this is going to be the time we cleaned JJ's apartment all over again?" Reid moaned.

"At least we aren't getting random threats from Garcia. That changed." Rossi offered.

"But that was what made that night interesting." Reid pouted. "That and Emily in JJ's clothes. I never knew how tall she was until I saw her high-water exercise pants."

"Boys--HURRY!!!" Garcia shouted behind her, trying to get them to speed it up. Scrapbooks didn't create themselves.

* * *

Emily had been put in charge of breaking into JJ's apartment. It was an easy task that hadn't taken much thought. She merely agreed to babysit for JJ but hadn't mentioned that company would be coming over.

She was relatively proud at how well JJ had maintained the cleanliness that they had invoked into her life. Everything seemed within ten minutes of being decent, a new record for JJ. As she heard the knock on the door, she knew she was in for a treat. Surely Garcia hadn't told the men what they were really up to.

"Hey." Emily welcomed, allowing all the eager participants into JJ's humble abode. "Henry's already sleeping, so we're all ready."

"Ready for what?" Reid asked warily. He did not have it in him to clean it again--it was too soon, far too soon and he still hadn't recovered from the last time.

"Garcia?" Rossi asked in a warning tone.

"Our resident baby mama is in dire need of assistance. Who are we to say no?" Garcia said, trying to convince her colleagues.

"Doing what?" Reid closed his eyes, imagining the worse and hoping that it was some how better than that.

"Scrapbooking." Emily said with false excitement.

All three men had very differing reactions to the startling revelation. Rossi gasped, Morgan groaned and Reid--Reid looked as though he was going to cry.

"Baby girl, are you out of your mind?" Morgan asked Garcia, who smiled wickedly. "No self respecting man scrapbooks."

"Oh my everlasting chunk of wonder, I am very sane." Garcia cackled.

"I'm not doing it." Reid said decisively. "There is no way I'm doing this."

"Shush Sugar Beet." Garcia commanded. "You're doing JJ a great service."

"JJ can scrapbook herself." Rossi muttered. "She's a grown woman."

"You've cleaned her apartment, do you really have that much faith in her?" Emily inquired rhetorically.

"She's got a point." Reid muttered. "I don't know how much we can expect JJ to do."

"I have supplies right here if you guys want to get started." Garcia beamed, ushering the men to JJ's semi-clean table.

"You even have stickers." Morgan snickered. "Poor Henry isn't going to stand a chance."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Garcia chuckled, pulling out her stack of creatively colored pens.

"Please, with you as a Godmother?" Rossi began with an obvious attempt to hide his jeering of Garcia. "The poor kid _doesn't_ stand a chance."

"He has Reid." Emily reasoned kindly.

"Like that's going to fix it." Morgan muttered as Reid shot him the nastiest look he could muster. "I still think that no self respecting man scrapbooks. They just don't."

"Oh hush." Garcia insisted, handing each of them a piece of Scrapbook paper. "Can you just think of how excited JJ will be when she sees this?"

"Speaking of JJ," Rossi mused. "Where is she?"

"On a date." Garcia informed proudly. It was about time that JJ got back onto that horse.

"JJ is on a date?" Reid sputtered disbelievingly. "With who? Please tell that its not the NSA guy again, I know she's on a rebound or whatever but he--"

"Not with the NSA moron." Garcia said, rolling her eyes. "She is on a date with someone _special."_

"Who?" Morgan pressed, desperate for the knowledge.

"I've been sworn to secrecy," Garcia started "If JJ trusts me more than she trusts you, than who am I to betray her--"

"It's Hotch." Emily interrupted, rolling her eyes at their friend.

"Hotch? Seriously?" Morgan spewed, knocking over a bottle of unopened sparkle glue. "Are you kidding me?"

"Not at all." Emily smiled smugly, as though she had been the only one to pick up on the growing affections between the two.

"We're scrapbooking, they're on a date, could this night get any stranger?" Rossi asked rhetorically.

"Wait, where's JJ's cat?" Reid asked worriedly, remembering the last time he encountered Fluffy.

"I had him visit the neighbors." Emily chuckled. "After the last time you two got together, I thought it was in Fluffy's best interest that she not have to see you again."

"So, there is no way we are going to find a way out of this?" Morgan asked, his eyebrow arched.

"Absolutely none." Garcia beamed, liking the feeling of being a dictator. She suddenly felt a kinship to big business, gun lords and Stalin. Oh what would her mother have thought if she saw this?

"Fine." Rossi muttered, not believing what his next statement would be. "Pass me the blue dotted paper and the glue."

"What do we say?" Garcia taunted, keeping it out of his reach.

"Now." He said firmly before cringing. "Please."

"With an attitude like that sir, you'll be a pro in no time." She smiled laughing as all the men had succumb to her will.

* * *

"This copper sparkle glue is interesting. Did you know that glue was first discovered nearly 200,000 years ago?" Reid said as he inspected the glue bottle.

"That's fascinating." Rossi said disinterestedly as he focused on the camping themed pages in front of him.

"And, did you know, that in 1969 Germany came out with the first glue stick? They called it--"

"Shut up Reid." Morgan interrupted, not able to focus on his own 'Bath Time' themed pages.

"Emily, what is that?" Reid scoffed, looking at a strange looking page. He tried to not laugh at the mess of glitter that she made on the page, but he could hardly help it. Holding up the offensive page for the others to see, Reid quickly had the page snatched from his grasp.

"A scrapbook page." Emily said protectively, shielding it from the cynical eyes that viewed it.

"You can't just shake it on, you have to be delicate." Rossi commanded disgustedly, causing Garcia to giggle. For having been so difficult and reluctant to comply in the beginning, Rossi had a strange skill for scrapbooking.

"I _was_ being delicate." Emily defended.

"And what is with that dog sticker in the corner? Please." Morgan mocked, putting the finishing touches on his third page. He never knew he could be so proficient, but he definitely had some skill when wielding decorative scissors.

"I thought it was cute." She explained, blushing slightly.

"You should have put the picture of Henry and JJ's dad on that page." Reid said, suddenly having a vision come to mind. "That way the colors would have coordinated."

"I thought that--"

"I don't know what you were thinking." Rossi muttered, stealing the page from her grasp. "But just give it here. We'll fix it."

"It doesn't need to be fixed." Emily huffed. "It looks fine."

"It looks like a fairy pooped on it." Garcia countered, looking down disgustedly at the paper.

"Maybe if we just brush it lightly." Reid offered hopefully. "Then maybe we can salvage some of the glitter."

"Yeah, the kid has got a point." Morgan agreed.

"Garcia, we created monsters. A heard of pansy monsters." Emily spat out, causing Rossi to shoot her an icy glare.

"Oh, the BAU feminist is just upset that she can't scrapbook as well as the men." Morgan taunted, knowing how upsetting the feminist slam would be to Emily, then he added for her annoyance "it must be a gender thing."

"Don't you even." Emily threatened.

"Now, now, no threats." Reid chastised as she sharply turned on him.

"Reid, you even attempt to take his side and I will take the copper sparkle glue from you." Her death glare showed that she was entirely serious in her tyranny.

"You wouldn't." He gasped, both Morgan and Rossi looked at her as though she were inhumane. The glue had been the only thing that had gotten him off his informative rant on stickers and paper.

"Try me."

While Garcia found all three of the men verses Emily entertaining, she was fairly sure someone was going to get hurt soon. Emily was now caressing her gun and Morgan could be seen staring longingly at the heavy vase on JJ's counter. "So, who wants to make bets on how the date is going between the two lovebirds?"

The question seemed to pry the profilers out of their argument as each member quickly considered the options.

"I bet they're talking about paperwork." Morgan laughed.

"I'll do you one better, I bet Hotch took her for a nice evening in the FBI cafeteria and they'll spend the rest of the night _filing_ paperwork." Emily chuckled.

"Or, they're spending the whole night organizing someone's sock drawer." Rossi said, quickly joining in on the game.

"I bet it goes something like this," Garcia said after picking up two discarded socks from JJ's drawer and placing them on each hand. "Oh, JJ, I think your appearance tonight is above the standard of excellence." She said in a low voice, moving her right hand so the sock appeared to be talking. "Oh, Aaron, your paperwork is always done on time and I find that moderately attractive." She said in a much higher voice as the left hand moved causing the team to erupt in laughter. "MWAAHHH!" She said, causing the to sock puppets to kiss passionately.

"Em, just do us all a favor. Don't touch another scrapbook page." Morgan laughed.

"Here Emily, why don't you organize all the pages in the binder?" Rossi suggested, hoping to keep Emily from creating another monstrosity.

* * *

"I really had a nice time." JJ said as she and Hotch walked up to her apartment complex.

"I did too." Hotch admitted. "Maybe we could go to a football game or something next time." He suggested easily, liking how comfortable he was with the blonde.

"I'd like that a lot." JJ blushed.

"Maybe we could even bring Jack and Henry?" He suggested again.

"I think that would be a great idea." JJ supplied as they stopped in front of her apartment door. "I would invite you in, but Emily's watching Henry, and..." She let her sentance hang limply in the air.

"And that could be awkward." He supplied.

"You know..." JJ began timidly. "Emily is a grown woman, and I have on good authority that she is relatively resilent towards situations like these."

"You're tempting me." Hotch groaned as JJ stepped closer to him.

"Is it working?" She asked defeated, closing the distance between them and putting herself within arms reach.

"Not tonight." He managed to say, though he grew increasingly aware of the close proximity between them.

"So I guess this is goodbye for now." She muttered, smiling lightly. "Thanks Hotch, I really had a good time." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek which he easily returned by pulling her into an even quicker hug.

She turned to her door and went to open it before Hotch finally sputtered a goodbye. "Night JJ."

"Night Hotch." She nodded softly as she opened her door and stepped in.

It took her a moment to shut the door, but as she watched him walk down her hallway, she sighed with pleasure.

_"Now there is a man who knows how to treat a girl._" JJ thought to herself as she turned to walk into her kitchen, where, to her ultimate surprise, she saw Emily wasn't alone.

"Hey guys." She said uncomfortably, unsure of what the rest of the team was doing hanging out in her apartment. It wasn't even messy.

"How was your date?" Garcia asked spiritedly, hoping up from her seat to pry the steamy details from her friend. "Was it everything you've ever hoped and more?"

"It was really...fine." JJ said, knowing that the statement didn't do it justice. She could sincerely say that it had been the best date she had ever had, but she would spare Morgan and Rossi the details. "I had a lot of fun."

"Good." Garcia squealed, throwing her arms around her friend.

"Erm..." JJ began, deciding that now was as good a time as any to find out what really was going on. "What are you all doing here?"

"We have a surprise." Garcia beamed as Emily forced a smile. Truthfully, the brunette could honestly say that she did not have fun tonight. Not after everyone picking apart her scrapbook page like it was the donor for theirs. She thought it was cute, but Rossi, Morgan, and Reid had to all go and become divas on her. Life was truly unfair.

"A surprise?" JJ asked worriedly. "Garcia, if its another lingerie splurge you went on for me, I can tell you now that I don't really--"

"Relax Buttercup." Garcia chuckled, not failing to notice the terrified look Reid flashed at Morgan who just laughed heartily at the situation. "Its nothing like that, at least tonight." She handed over a small package, wrapped in some of JJ's recycled wrapping paper.

"Sorry, we helped ourselves." Reid blushed, JJ just smiled in response.

"Don't worry about it." She said, before looking curiously at the gift. "What is it?"

"Just open it." Rossi commanded eagerly.

JJ looked at him skeptically, before tugging the ribbon and undoing the bow. Then she proceeded to tear the paper at the taped edges. JJ was known for her recycling of wrapping paper, she still in fact had the gift wrap from her eighteenth birthday party, though the team had some what limited her supply when the went and ransacked her apartment.

"Today please." Emily prodded urgently. Seriously, she thought JJ was going to take all week.

At first, JJ looked at the gift in shock, before fanning it open and thumbing through the pages. "What in the world?"

"Its Henry's first scrapbook." Garcia said proudly. "We knew you wouldn't have time for it so we brought the guys and they helped."

"Thank you so much." She whispered softly, fighting a few sentimental tears. "You have no idea what this means to me."

"No problem." Reid beamed. "It was actually a lot of fun."

"You scrapbooked?" JJ asked, keeping her mouth tight lipped to prevent laughter.

"We didn't have a choice." Morgan insisted, though as he saw one of the pages he did, he was sure that he ought to have gone pro.

"Oh, and you even let Henry help." JJ said excitedly, showing off one of the pages.

"Erm...No, that was Emily's page." Rossi admitted, fighting a smile.

"Oh." JJ said slowly, completely trying to back track. "My mistake. It really is um...Cute."

"You don't need to lie to her." Morgan chuckled. "Its not like she doesn't already know that she lacks the gift."

"The gift?" Emily spat. "I never thought I would have to say this but, Morgan, go grow a pair."

"Now play nice." Garcia chastised half-heartedly as JJ continued to look at the book. They had done an awesome job...with the exception of the one page.

"Do me a favor." Rossi commanded. "Next time scrapbooking needs doing, don't give Emily the sparkle glue."

"Sure thing." JJ laughed, still insisting that it really did look like Henry had done the page.

* * *

**_An/ So this is the end of it. Let me know if you thought it was a worthy sequal to one of my favorite stories I've written._**


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